Is YouTube Advertising Really That Good? A YouTube Guide

At Yinc we still have a hard time convincing people run YouTube ads. They always want to know if YouTube advertising really works and will add to the bottom line.

Since YouTube started back in 2005 it has grown to be the number one place for people to share videos. It is also considered to be the second biggest search engine. Now here is a scary number…

According to Youtube, product review videos are up 40 percent last year alone. I met a guy last week who creates product review videos for a living. When something new comes out, he does a simple review and ranks his video. YouTube pays him a nice check ever month. It is a nice little revenue stream.

How YouTube Advertising Works

Viewers, come to YouTube to be entertained, learn, and join an interactive community. They also provide the eyeballs required to help creators, advertisers, and YouTube make money.

Creators, come to YouTube to express themselves, share their creativity, and potentially make some money from it -if they can. As a creator, you can keep making great videos so viewers come back for more and make visiting your channel a habit.

Advertisers, look at YouTube as way to reach and target audiences. If your audience is really engaged, and if they’re a demographic that brands really want to reach, advertisers may be willing to pay to run ads on channels creators make.

Different YouTube Advertising Formats

Lets go over the 6 different Ads you are able to run with YouTube.

Topping the list are simple Display Ads (I don’t like these)

Where they appear: Display ads appear to the right of the featured video and above the video suggestion list. For larger video players, this ad may also show up below the player. Display ads (or sometimes refered to as banners) may run across all areas of YouTube, except on the homepage.

How They Generate Revenue: If a view is interested in your product or service and they see your Display, you should get a click. I personally do not use these types of ads. I have not found them to be that effective. Just be careful when you run any type of display ads. Google has no mercy when it comes to taking your money.

This brings me to our second style of display ads.

Second On Our List Are Overlay Ads (I don’t like these)

Location: Because Overlay ads are a transparent advertisement that appears on the lower 20% portion of your video, retailers should avoid having key information in the lower portion of their video where the overlap (indicated by the red box above) could occur.

This ad type only appears on desktop and laptop computers. Viewers can also exit the ad at any time.

How They generate revenue: I highly recommend that you do not run these ads. They get so many false clicks and I believe they are the most annoying. When I watch my kids on YouTube, they seem to accidently click on these ads all the time. They operate the same as the Display ads above. Further down I will explain the key to getting leads on YouTube. I just wanted to cover your different options first.

So you know, they operate the same as the Display ads above. Further down I will explain the key to getting leads on YouTube.

Your YouTube Midroll Ads (I don’t run these)

Location: Midroll ads are currently available for videos over 15 minutes. These ads are spaced within the video – similar to the way TV commercials roll out during a program. Viewers must watch the ads before they can continue to view the rest of the YouTube video. Advertisers can insert ad breaks at natural pauses throughout the YouTube video for the better, more streamlined viewing experience. These ads only appear on desktop, laptops and mobile devices.

YouTube Sponsored Cards (I like these)

Location: Introduced in 2015, Sponsored Cards display content that is relevant to the YouTube video, such as products featured in the video. Viewers see a teaser for the card for a few seconds, then they can also click the icon in the top right corner of the video to browse the cards. This is available on desktop and mobile devices.

Location: Non-skippable video ads must be watched before a YouTube video can be viewed. Long non-skippable video ads may be up to 30 seconds. These types of ads can appear before, during, or after the main video.

How We Generate Revenue: Advertisers are able to run on certain videos. When a viewer watches the ad the advertisers have to pay and the creator gets paid. If your landing page is set up correctly and your videos are engaging, you will be able to capture leads.

But…

Every time your ad pops up, you are going to have to pay. It doesn’t matter who is watching. Companies with outrageous marketing budgets (geico, state farm etc) like to run these ads. They have money to blow.

YouTube TrueView Instream Skippable Video Ads (I Love These)

Location: TrueView skippable video ads allow viewers to skip ads after 5 seconds if they choose. The ads can be inserted before, during, or after the main video.

How We Generate Revenue: Instream ads are what I love running. They give the viewer the option to watch your ad or skip it. We do not want to pay for people who are not interested in our product or service. Once the viewer watches 30 seconds of your video, the creator is paid and the advertisers are charged.

I will explain more about Instream Skippable Video ads below. But for now, know these are the best type of ads. They seem to generate the most leads.

If you are a Video creator looking to generate revenue from your videos. Here is a screen shot of your different options. This looks a little different for advertisers.

Now for the Fun Part of YouTube Advertising

YouTube TrueView Ad Tutorial

I began running YouTube video ads a couple of years ago. We have spent thousands of dollars on generating leads from YouTube. It works and I get some of my cheapest conversion from their platform.

The only bad thing is YouTube is not that scalable. You’re limited to the number of views a certain video gets. But that doesn’t mean you should not be using it.

With TrueView ads you are able to:

Target your audience by demographic, interest, topic, etc

Retarget those who have seen your other videos

Pick the exact video you want your ads to run on

Play your video in front of your competitors.

Track conversion

Get cheap views

Here is a simple screen-shot of a current campaign we are running.

This will give you an idea of what they look like. The company above has

506,751 impressions

29,231 Views

5.77% view rate

$0.06 a view

Your TrueView ads have two types of formats

In-stream video ads

In-display video ads

In-Stream Video Ads

In-stream ads play before or during the YouTube video. We like to make these skippable. We also recommend that you be extremely selective on the video you choose to run in front of. If you are not careful your budget will be wasted on “Wheels On The Bus Kid Videos.”

Viewers see five seconds of the advertisement and then have the choice to keep watching or skip it. If you can get them to click to your website before the 30 second that is considered to be FREE Traffic. This is one of the reasons you really want a compelling video. The quicker you can grab the viewers attention, qualify them, and get them to take action, the more FREE traffic you will get.

TrueView in-stream ads can run on videos served on YouTube or on a collection of sites and apps in the Google Display Network (GDN). We recommend sticking with YouTube and staying away from the GDN network.I put together a simple YouTube video that will explain how you will go about finding the right YouTube videos to play your ads in front of.

The second video advertising option for TrueView advertisers is in-display ads.

According to Google, TrueView in-display ads can run across YouTube and Google Display Network. On YouTube they can run on the search and watch pages for both desktop and m.youtube.com, as well as the home pages for desktop and YouTube mobile apps.

As seen in the example above, the ad consists of an image thumbnail and up to three lines of text but retailers should note, this is only one of the 6 options retailers can choose from for their in-display format.

When a viewer clicks on the ad they are brought to the YouTube watch or channel page (rather than being able to watch the video within the ad itself).

In-display ads can also appear alongside other YouTube videos, in YouTube search pages, or on websites on the Google Display Network that match your target audience. Advertisers only pay only when a viewer chooses to watch your video by clicking on the ad. YouTube search results:

TrueView in-display ads appear on YouTube search results in the related video section. The ad contains a thumbnail, headline, channel name and video view count. The top-ranked ad may also be repeated below the organic search results.

In-display Ads watch page and the home page:

A good way to use In-display ads on the watch page are Retargeting campaigns.

There are a few other options, but I am not going to go into them here.

If you are really interested in running YouTube ads I suggest you check out all of our Tutorial Videos below. We have seen great results from YouTube ads and highly suggest you try them. To wrap things up I want to give you a couple of YouTube Marketing tips.

Stay away from advertising on kid videos and music videos they will kill your budget. In adwords you will find a place where you can exclude your a certain video/audience.

Start small and scale up.

Put brackets and parenthesis around you keywords words when setting up your in-display ads.

Create an amazing and entertaining video. (this is 50% of your success)

Monitor your results often

Have an objective and a conversion goal set up

Be happy and keep trying until you get it. Don’t give up too soon

Thanks for reading: Is YouTube Advertising Really That Good? A YouTube Guide